[RichardLess]

So something about Extreme Ghostbusters has always stood out to me as odd. It’s episode count. 40 episodes for a single season? That’s a decent amount of episodes. Now it was strip syndicated, meaning Monday-Friday. That’s instead of doing one episode per week.

EGB was produced by Adelaide and Columbia. Adelaide did Columbia’s cartoons in this era and I noticed something odd about the some of the cartoons based on movies produced during the era of EGB. Let’s start with Jumanji.

Jumanj The TV series, which, again, was produced by the exact same production companies as EGB lasted, 40 episodes . Except it was spread over 3 seasons. It was once per week on Saturday or Sunday. So once again, 40 episodes.season 1 had 13 episodes, season 2 had 13 episodes and season 3 had 14 episodes. Remember those numbers for later.

Godzilla ‘98 animated series? Same exact production company. 2 seasons of 40 episodes. There’s that number again. 40.

Men in Black? Again exact same production company only it lasted 4 seasons of 53 episodes(only 13 more than EGB). I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Now we are led to believe EGB was a failure because it was lasted a single season, right? But based on some of these other shows that lasted multiple seasons…EGB’s episode order was actually pretty solid & standard. Only Men in Black had more episodes. That show was considered a big success.

Considering that all these shows were produced by the same company, I’m thinking that unless Extreme Ghostbuster turned out to be a SUPER MEGA hit, 40 episodes was all we were ever going to get. It can’t be a coincidence Jumanji, GodZilla and EGB all lasted 40 episodes each. They were all produced around the same time too. All based on movies released by Sony/Columbia/Tri Star.

40 episodes is such an odd number for 3 shows, all by the exact same company, that it’s gotta be the order for all the series. It can’t be a coincidence. But because EGB was strip syndicated we got all episodes in a single season Vs spread out over multiple.

So my theory? All these shows, Men in Black included, all had initial 40 episodes ordered. Men in Black’s episodes went like this; season 1: 13, season 2: 13, season 3: 14, season 4: 13. Remember that Jumanji count? It’s same except for the 13 episode 4th season. Men in Black turned out to be such a big hit, it got that one more order of 13 episodes. Both Jumanji and Men in Black had 14 episode 3rd seasons. That stands out as weird. That would be the 40th episode of each show. Why would they order 2 season’s of 13 and a single of 14? Because the total order was 40 and they had to spread them out for 3 seasons. But due to MIb’s huge success it got that final order.

Oh. And there’s one more show I forgot about that has this same formula. It was based on a movie, released by Sony, and reached 40 episodes. Roughneck Starship Troopers. It had a 40 episode order but it couldn’t make 4 of them due to CGI production problems & so 4 were clip shows.

So what does all this mean? I think it means we maybe should rethink the idea of EGB being a failure. Think of it this way. If EGB had the exact same episode count, 40 episodes, but it was spread out over 3 seasons, would we still consider it as a failure?

So we have:
Jumanji: 3 seasons of 40 episodes
Extreme Ghostbusters: 1 season of 40 episodes
Godzilla: 2 seasons of 40 episodes.
Men in Black: 4 seasons of 53 episodes
Roughneck Starship Troopers: 40 Episodes.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong. But that can’t be a coincidence. Can it?

[mrmichaelt]

That was confirmed since 1998. In an interview with Proton Charging back in 1998, Fil Barlow had revealed EGB was only ever meant to be 40 episodes and was never going to have another season.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140814205 ... il-barlow/

"We were only meant to do 40 episodes. I haven’t heard of another season being considered. The property is owned by Columbia-Tristar so you never know what they might decide to do. Maybe in ten years from now I’ll be working on it again."

[ghoulishfright]

Interesting. I always had the impression the show got cancelled because -- didn't they put the show in some horrible time slot? Like, around the time that kids would be going to or from school?

Still, I always thought the show had a good, solid run, even if they theoretically could have written (and Columbia could have ordered) more episodes. The show was an oasis in what was otherwise a desert of Ghostbusters content in the 90s, so I was grateful for what we got.

[mrmichaelt]

Well, we don't have all the answers about the show's origins and end. But it doesn't look like it wasn't Sony's initiative to make the show. Trend Masters, the toy company, went to them about a new toyline and a new animated series. Speculation-wise, the big project at the time for them was that '98 Godzilla movie so the company maybe pulled back of some projects like EGB to focus on Godzilla which could account for some EGB toys not being released that we've seen prototypes of. Or because it was a one-in-done idea, they simply moved on to the next ideas which I think one was Shadow Raiders. So once the $$$ left, not like Sony was gonna foot the bill to make more episodes or bother looking for another toy company or deal with the legalities of them taking over the license, etc. The terrible timeslot didn't help either and were the nails on the coffin, imo.

[RichardLess]

That was confirmed since 1998. In an interview with Proton Charging back in 1998, Fil Barlow had revealed EGB was only ever meant to be 40 episodes and was never going to have another season.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140814205 ... il-barlow/

"We were only meant to do 40 episodes. I haven’t heard of another season being considered. The property is owned by Columbia-Tristar so you never know what they might decide to do. Maybe in ten years from now I’ll be working on it again."

Fascinating. Thanks for the confirmation. Good to know I was on to something. So I wonder where this “EGB was a failure” crap came from? Seems like people thought that 1 season=failure. And I’ve seen that line parroted around here. Shit, even I’ve talked that crap.

Makes you wonder what was magic about 40 episodes? I guess that’s the cost they could amortize all these shows and make a profit?

[GuyX]

Super interesting stuff.

So Extreme Ghostbusters was never canceled? It just never was going to go past 40 episodes? I had always heard plans for season 2 included Samhain & that some scripts were even written. I guess that was nonsense?

Seeing that list of shows Rich listed just confirms how awesome kids who grew up in the 1990s had it. No era comes close. Think about it. Batman Animated Series, Animaniacs, Pinky & Brain, Reboot, Beast Wars, Batman Beyond, Pokémon, Dragonball Z, Digimon, Power Rangers, Spide-Man, X-Men animated series. Not to mention Recess, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Dexter’s Lab etc. & those just came to mind without really thinking on it. Now Saturday Morning cartoons are extinct.

That interview mrmichaelt posted was interesting. 1 thing I’ve never been a huge fan of about Extreme Ghostbusters are the character designs. But when u watch RGB after XGB it’s jarring how different they are. XGB is full on horror at times. RGB shows is age & decade much more than XGB. The only really dated aspect of XGB is the title. Meanwhile RGB has montages with hilariously dated 1980s songs.

Disney+ is making a continuation of X-Men called X-Men 97. Maybe it will start a trend of continuing old 90s shows that ended before their time.

[mrmichaelt]

Fascinating. Thanks for the confirmation. Good to know I was on to something. So I wonder where this “EGB was a failure” crap came from? Seems like people thought that 1 season=failure. And I’ve seen that line parroted around here. Shit, even I’ve talked that crap.

Makes you wonder what was magic about 40 episodes? I guess that’s the cost they could amortize all these shows and make a profit?

I suppose the notion that a 1 season show=failure stereotype is it. It was kind of a weird self-fulfilling prophecy. If it only was going to be 40 episodes, did they dump it in the terrible timeslot on purpose knowing it would get meh ratings? Idk.

Yeah, 40 was probably how the bean counters budgeted it at the time. 40 was weird to me because I'm used to episode orders of 13 or 26 leading to the magic 52 number before a show ended but maybe that was the 2000s.

I had always heard plans for season 2 included Samhain & that some scripts were even written. I guess that was nonsense?

Hard to say. Could be bunk. Could be true. Sometimes, crews have to give an outline or some ideas for a season 2 'just in case' even though it's known chances are slim to none or a writer has to fill out his/her time as an employee, so they throw out some ideas in addition to the script(s) they're hired to write. Like for instance, the follow up series to Batman: The Animated Series named The New Batman Adventures that aired on Kids WB!. Writer Rich Fogel mentioned he wrote an outline with a supervillain called Copperhead "when we weren't sure whether there were going to be more episodes coming around." And there was no renewal for the show, just the 24 episodes.

[egb fan]

I wish EGB's forty episodes had been spread out over two or three seasons, only because I believe this would have minimalised the number of really bad ones. The most EGB episodes any one person wrote is three.* Personally, I could've done without the likes of 'Dog Days' (boring and lacklustre) and 'Witchy Woman' (painfully shallow characterisation) making up the numbers. Duane Capizzi, and a few other hand-picked writers, putting some real thought into some new episodes would give my life a few hours' more pleasure every year or so, at least (sure, not everyone is going to feel the same way, for any number of reasons).

*Only Steve Roberts has as many as three writing credits: 'The Infernal Machine', 'Grease' and 'The Sphinx', all of which I consider to be good, strong episodes. So in that case, I'd have been glad to have him back on the writing team for a twenty-episode Season 2.

[Threadender]

Witchy Woman reminded me of the Craft, and I generally liked Dog Days. I think my favorite scene is the owners running from their dog as it chases them on the ceiling. Then again, the door being busted makes me think the owners may not have made it...